The Top Ten Must-Watch 2016 Rio Olympics Basketball Teams

Okay, it’s the Olympics already and it’s time to get serious, especially when NBA stars are neatly distributed all over the different teams. Here is our brave opinion on the top ten must-watch teams in this year’s Olympic Games.

10. Croatia

Alright, let’s face it. Croatia is going to have a challenging time climbing up, but it doesn’t mean that they are not challenge enough for the other teams. They have NBA players Mario Hezonja, Dario Saric, and Bojan Bogdanovic on their team after all.

9. Argentina

Okay, the past decade has been legendary for Argentina, but here’s the deal: their players are retiring. Even their best players agree that they are past their prime and they are only there for support. But still, to those who are fans of the country, one can still pray for a miracle. After all, they have a lot of new players over there – like 23 year old Nicolas Brussino for instance.

8. Serbia

Watch out basketball fans because Serbia has packed up a really powerful team. They have some of the most powerful non-NBA players like Milos Teodosic, and reliable NBA players such as Nikola Jokic and Miroslav Raduljica. Oh man, it’s going to be exciting!

7. Nigeria

With NBA players like Al-Farouq Aminu, Festus Ezeli, and Michael Gbinije playing, Nigeria is certainly not going to be a simple bottom-feeder and may yet prove that they are a force to be reckoned with. Not to mention that they have the motivation of their recent gold medal at the 2015 AfroBasket firing them up.

6. Brazil

Okay, so the team takes a punch when Anderson Varejao gets an injury and can’t join them. But we still cannot remove the fact that they have the confidence of being the home team here – that, along with the skill of Leandro Barbosa, Marcelo Huertas, and Raul Neto might just let them have their most sought-after victory. And oh, Nene’s going to be there too. Just sayin’.

5. Lithuania

And now at the top part of the list, the competition gets more intense as we list down the top five teams who all actually have the chance to take home the gold. And let’s start with Lithuania. They have some of the talented players we’ve seen so far: Mindaugas Kuzminskas, Domantas Sabonis, and Jonas Valanciunas.

4. France

Here is the number one reason why France might just win the gold medal this year. They have a perfectly well-balanced team where everyone participates and delivers. We got Tony Parker, Rudy Gobert, Boris Diaw, Nicolas Batum, and Joffrey Lauvergne.

3. Spain

Wow, Spain is an absolute power house. They have Alex Abrines, Ricky Rubio, Jose Calderon, Pau Gasol, Willy Hernangomez, Sergio Rodriguez, and Nikola Mirotic all playing for their team. It’s important to note though that some of their players are already past their prime, but who knows? They might just be able to snatch the gold while Team USA’s not looking.

2. Australia

We are talking about Aron Bynes, Joe Ingles, Andrew Bogut, Patty Mills, and of course, Matthew Dellavedova here. All eyes are certainly on Team Australia as they will definitely try to take home the gold. Watch out Team USA!

1. Team USA

This leads us to the top basketball team on our list, Team USA. It’s not much of a surprise anymore, isn’t it? A lot of you must have expected this team to be the number one in our rankings already. It is an ALL-STAR team after all, and with them NOT bagging the gold will actually be more embarrassing to them compared to other teams.